Legal set back for Carillion over blacklisting

The construction and services giant Carillion received a blow yesterday at the Employment Appeal Tribunal when Mr Justice Singh found that the case of blacklisted UCATT safety rep, Dave Smith, raised questions of wide public significance and therefore allowed an appeal in a two day contested hearing probably in spring or early summer. Frank Morris, another blacklisted worker, has his first day in court at London central Employment Tribunal later today

Dave Smith took a case against three Carillion owned companies to Employment Tribunal in London in January 2012. In the judgment in March 2012 (Case no 1310709/2009) the judge said “It seems to us that he has suffered a genuine injustice and we greatly regret that the law provides him with no remedy”. This was because he lost the case on the technical point that he was not directly employed by Carillion who blacklisted him but was “employed” by an employment agency. Mr Smith is now able to appeal this.

“I have not had an apology or one penny compensation from Carillion who kept me out of work costing me and my family hundreds of thousands in lost wages and I want justice from the courts”, says Dave Smith.

During his original Employment Tribunal hearing Dave Smith gained admissions of the involvement of Liz Keates, HR Director for Carillion, with the blacklist; and it was Liz Keates who advised GMB representatives in February 2012 that Carillion would not be upholding any part of anyone’s grievance at Swindon’s Great Western Hospital, after 109 staff had given strong evidence of supervisor racism and bullying, and a number of staff had given testimony of extortion and shake downs by white supervisors and managers from their non-white staff. Ms Keates said that “there was no evidence”; disregarding the testimony of Carillion’s own staff.

Strike action by GMB members caused Carillion to conduct a more thorough inquiry, where over 130 staff gave evidence, and ten staff – later victimized for whistle-blowing by Carillion – gave personal testimony that cash or goods had been extorted from them by Carillion supervisors. No Carillion supervisor has faced any disciplinary sanction, and in a revealing letter to the GWH NHS trust dated 22nd November 2012, from Carillion’s most senior manager at GWH, Ms Gemma Lynch, she wrote that Carillion did not admit to systematic corruption by supervisors, because in her words, there was “no physical evidence”. Again we see the disregarding of testimony by scores of South Asian staff, and the absurd expectation that physical evidence is needed to corroborate their stories before Carillion will accept it.

Carillion itself was formed by a de-merger from the Tarmac group in 1999, and the corporate rebranding obscured the fact that a construction giant had entered the services market in the public sector. It brought with it the hard-nosed, rapacious and money-grubbing ethos of the construction industry.

There is certainly a compelling similarity between the way Carillion has ignored, belittled and denied the reports of supervisor corruption at the Swindon hospital with the record of Carillion’s construction arm of victimising and blacklisting Health and Safety reps on its building sites. The common denominator is a seeming presumption to dismiss staff complaints as nuisance or of no value, even where serious matters of site safety or systematic racism and extortion are involved. Although the Blacklist Support Group had been doing sterling work in exposing the activites of the Construction companies, and UCATT had previously raised the issue with MPs, the blacklisting issue acheived lift-off when GMB joined the dots between Carillion’s malpractice at the Swindon hospital, and the history of unlawful blacklisting by the same company in the construction industry.

“On its own admission, Carillion has had £2.5 billion per annum from public contracts, at the same time as placing ordinary citizens on blacklists and stopping them working. It cannot be allowed and it must be stopped as soon as practicably possible. From July to September 2008, McAlpine spent £12,839 making 5,836 blacklist checks—a total of 63 a day. That corresponded with McAlpine’s building of the Olympic stadium. How disgraceful can you get? A major company such as McAlpine penalising people for whatever, at the same time as having multi-million-pound Government contracts, is, as many people have said, absolutely insidious.”

Are there any patterns in the CLP nominations so far? | LabourListLuke Akehurst's analysis concludes "Corbyn’s lead may be stronger than the raw nomination figures suggest, that the gap between Burnham and Cooper may be a bit smaller, and that Kendall whilst still in a weak fourth place is doing a bit better and her transfers may have a critical impact on the outcome – they could easily put Cooper ahead of Burnham"

Subscribe!

On Facebook

By Sergio Cesaratto The victory of ‘no’ opens two scenarios. The most likely is the further effort by the Syriza-led government to reach a new agreement with the Troika, but it is not clear why it should be given something that had not been given before. The financial upheaval of recent days may be such as […]

Italy’s Five Star Movement, which has campaigned for a referendum on the Euro, is in Athens today to support the Syriza government. Interview with Italian MP Alessandro Di Battista of the Five Star movement, who is participating in the delegation led by party leader Beppe Grillo. By Giacomo Russo Spena Top Quotes: Today’s referendum: “It is […]

What image will remain in the European Union in the wake of the Greek crisis? Indeed, whatever the outcome of this crisis, whether it results in a Greek default and a possible exit from the euro zone, or a capitulation of the Greek government, the consequences of this crisis on the EU and its image […]

Barcelona’s new radical mayor-elect has signalled her determination to secure a fair deal for exploited Telefonica-Movistar workers by threatening to curtail the company’s contract with the City to put pressure the company in its labour dispute. Outgoing mayor Xavier Triasa aimed to prolong the contract between the operator and the City Council for another year until July 2016, but that is now […]

In the past seven days we have been given a glimpse into what could lie ahead in our true blue Tory future. This is a government not content with simply demolishing the welfare state but seemingly hell bent on eradicating meaningful democracy itself.

Yesterday in Prime Minister’s Question Time, David Cameron proudly claimed that the Tories are the Party who are “standing up for working people”. Under normal circumstances, this would be enough to make us on the Labour benches in the House of Commons and working people across the country despair, but yesterday it just served […]

A technicality it may be, but today has seen the first unfettered Conservative budget of the twenty first century, the first for almost two decades. All illusions the True Blue Tory party have changed, that they are compassionate, have been shattered. The mask has not slipped it has been torn off and thrown into the […]

This week I didn't behave well. Really bad in fact. I mean I slow clapped the home secretary as she headed for her lobby. I then followed it with, what I will call a robust exchange, with the minister for women and equalities Nicky Morgan across the chamber.

On Saturday, I was proud to march alongside friends, family and hundreds of thousands of other people - trade unionists, campaigners, celebrities and activists - all united in their determination to voice their anger at the Tory Government’s austerity agenda.

About Left Futures

Meta

Left Futures

Left Futures is a new Labour Left network. If you want to get involved as a contributor, please contact Jon Lansman using the form on this page.
Header images: Wind farm [credit]. Balloons [credit] and crowd scene [credit]. Labour Conference pics [credit].